Friday, 30 August 2013

I've known for a while but it's finally here.As of Monday, I join Palgrave Macmillan as their head of Academic Marketing.This is a big shift for me, one that
I'm both thrilled and excited by. It's a new challenge and new
adventure, one that I'm very ready for. It was very strange to say goodbye to SAGE this week after nearly 6.5 years. I set up the PR function from scratch there. I joined as a team of one, and left as head of a department with 7 people in the UK and a parallel team set up to match my own in the US.

I'm certainly leaving with my head held high. I learned so much in that time, and have been fortunate to work on some incredibly exciting initiatives, not least of all launching niche social media network Methodspace, overseeing SAGE's major corporate communications push around the social sciences (ranging from the launch of Social Science Space, Social Science Bites and many many corporate partnerships), and managing some tricky communications initiatives including four major business acquisitions. It's never been quiet, and although it has often been challenging I have loved my time there.Despite all that, I have been ready for a new challenge for a while, and having met with my new boss back in May, I knew this role would give me the opportunity to learn and grow. I'm very glad to have found a position within academic publishing that gives me the
chance to build on the nine years of
experience I have in professional communications, and apply that in a new
arena. Marketing has a lot in common with PR, but equally there's a lot I'll be doing for the first time. That is daunting but also very exciting.

When I started out as a Marketing
Communications Assistant back in 2004, I didn't specifically plan to end up in
Education, but I can honestly say I'm so glad I did. What a rich, colourful and
inspiring sector. I love being able to work with such a broad array of
genuinely interesting people, each undertaking the lofty challenge of
uncovering useful knowledge and sharing that with the world. I'm thrilled to
be joining a global publishing team doing some incredibly interesting work and
I can't wait to get stuck in.